Numismatics International Bulletin, Vol. 29, No.11

30 years of service to numismatics

BULLETIN

NUMISMATICS INTERNATIONAL

FOUND! O 1964

Volume 29 Number 11 ISSN: 0197-3088 Price .... Two Dollars

■Mn"MI " *

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURE ARTICLES

The Face Behind the Face Behind the Iron Mask, by Peter S. Horvitz 259

Fakes, Forgeries and Fantasies HI, by Bob Forrest — -246

The Reasons for Striking of Chekhs in Sevsk, by V. V. Zaitsev 255

DEPARTMENTS

Book News & Reviews 261

From the Mailbox 263

Member Notice Page 264

INSIDE N.I.

Donations Report — 243

Librarian’s Report 243

Membership Chairman’s Report -243

NI Library Index on Disks 245

OTHER ITEMS

Gold Plated Antoniniani of Caracalla 245

Henry Christophe’s Reign in Haiti -260

Italian Coinage 254

Copyrighted by Numismatics International, P.O. Box 670013, Dallas, Texas USA 75367-0013

NOVEMBER 1994

BOARD OF GOVERNORS

DR. HOWARD L. FORD
Chairman & Past-President

JOHN E. VANDIGRIFF

PHILIP BRANDENBURG

President

ROSS SCHRAEDER
Secretary
214-995-4921 D
214-237-4347 N

Vice-President

1

DON DOUGLAS

Treasurer

CRAIG BURRUS
At-Large Director

WALTER W. LEONARD
At-Large Director

WILLIAM E. BENSON
JACK E. LEWIS
ELMORE B. SCOTT

MARVIN L. FRALEY PHILIP LAWRENCE

CHARLES MUCHMORE ROBERT W. RICHTER

WILLIAM B. THOMPSON CARL YOUNG

Past-Presidents

APPOINTED STAFF

Curator, NI REFERENCE COLLECTION Publicity Chairman

Philip L. Lawrence

Curator, JOHN GRAVES MEMORIAL
PAPER MONEY COLLECTION

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Phone 301-530-5400

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Granvyl G. Hulse, Jr. {

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Book News & Reviews Editor
NI BULLETIN

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Jim Haley
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Correspondence should be directed to those persons and addresses above for departments indicated. All other correspondence
should be mailed direct to NUMISMATICS INTERNATIONAL, P. O. BOX 670013, DALLAS, TEXAS 75367-0013.

MEMBERSHIP FEES: Individual & Club Memberships - $15.00 Annually. Junior Membership (18 years of age and under) -
$10.00 Annually. Senior Membership (70 years of age and older) - $10.00 Annually.

242

INSIDE N.I

MEMBERSHIP CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

November, 1994 Applications for Membership: The following persons have

applied for membership. If no written objections are received by January 1, 1995,
their membership will become effective on that date.

2455 Frank A. De Lorenzo, 7502 Southgate Road, Fayetteville, NC 28314-5441

2456 Igor Vrabel, 4222 Richmond Ave., Houston, Texas 77027

DONATIONS REPORT

We have received the following donations since the last report:

Name

Donations

Preference of Use

FRALEY, Marvin L. 4 coins (NVS) NI Reference Collection

KRANEVELD, Peter 2 coins (NVS) NI Reference Collection

NVS = No Value Stated by donor.

LIBRARIAN’S REPORT

I. Acknowledgement is made below to those who have donated material to the NI
Library:

John K. Kallman

PA40.KalJ : 1 994:MTCJ

KALLMAN, JOHN K.

U.S. military tokens and chits used in Japan.
Pub. 1994, 56pp, not illus.

From the Harold L. Pincus Estate

KB30.A11L: 1968.PC

ALLEN, LYMAN L.

A catalog of Philippine coins.
Pub. 1968, 30pp, illus.

243

CC53.CamL:1993:PWCCM
CAMPBELL, LANCE K.

Prisoner of war and concentration camp money of the twentieth
century.

Pub. 1993, 2nd ed., 200pp, illus.

Librarian’s note. This is the best work I have seen on this subject.

US75.MedB.1968:TONS
MEDLAR, BOB

Texas obsolete notes and script.

Pub. 1968, 204pp, illus.

US50.RotM: 1963:USFC
ROTHERT, MATT

A guide book of United States fractional currency.

Pub. 1963, 81pp, illus.

UA60.SchF: 1988: AKC

SCHWAN, CARLTON FREDERICK

The Alex Kesselman collection of United States military payment
certificates allied military currency sale and commentary.

Pub. 1088, 23pp, illus.

BA65. WacM: 1976:BN
WACKS, MEL

The handbook of Biblical numismatics from Abraham to the crusaders.
Pub. 1976, 38pp, illus.

Randolph Zander

JB45.CarR: 197 1 :MDC

CARSON, ROBERT A.G. (Ed.)

Mint, dies and currency. Essays dedicated to the memory of Albert
Baldwin. (Mostly on early English and Scottish coinage.)

Pub. 1971, 336pp, w/plates.

VC55.DeTw:1961:B

DE TWENTSCHE BANK, AMSTERDAM
Bankspiegel.

(A collection of articles related to the bank’s history published to
celebrate its one hundredth anniversary.)

Pub. 1961, 131pp, illus.

AA50.Grae: 197 1 :OL

GRAESSE, J.G.T./BENEDICT/PLECHL, H.

Orbis Latinus. Lexikon lateinischer geographischer tiamen.

(In Latin-German, and German-Latin.)

Pub. 1971, 4th ed., 579pp, not illus.

244

II. An envelope from John L. Pieratt has brought more Hollywood money, and some
play money samples. These will be filed with his material on stage money listed in
the last report.

HI. In addition to the above the Library has received additional books from Ran
Zander that will be listed in the next report.

Granvyl G. Hulse, Jr., Book Librarian
James D. Haley, Periodical Librarian

NI LIBRARY INDEX ON DISKS

During the American Numismatic Association convention at Detroit NI sold three sets
of the disks containing the index of the NI Library. Since this is the wave of the
future, the Librarian would appreciate some feedback from the purchasers. How easy
was it to use? What could we do to improve this service? As we are approaching
the end of the year, when up-dated disks are prepared, we want to do as good a job
as we can. Please drop a line with your comments. This same query also applies to
those that have purchased a set direct from the Library.

sfc f ^ ^ «|/ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

GOLD PLATED ANTONINIANI OF CARACALLA

A number of years ago, a group of sixteen antoniniani of Caracalla and of Elagabalus
were found somewhere in Galilee. While this is not unusual in itself, the fact that
they were gold plated in antiquity is. Two of these coins were examined scientifically
and found to have been coated with mercury and gold leaf pressed on over it. The
amalgam held the gold tightly to the silver coin. The present of corrosion products
over the plating dispelled any doubts about the age of the plating.

It was assumed that the plating had been applied to deceive the public that were
unfamiliar with the new double aureus that had been introduced by Caracalla. This
assumption is supported by the presence of two of these coins with chisel cuts right
through the flans, as the plating covers the inside surfaces of the cuts. This gives the
appearance of a gold coin which had been tested and found to be good metal
throughout.

Two similarly plated coins have subsequently been reported to have been found in
excavations at Sasa, near the Lebanese border with Israel, but no further details are
known of these pieces.

245

(Submitted by R. R. Kutcher)

FAKES, FORGERIES AND FANTASIES III

Bob Forrest, Manchester, England, NI # 2382

(This article was originally published in the English magazine Coin News in July and
August 1994, and is here reprinted by kind permission of the editor.)

A more apt title for this article might be, "False coins - but why?", for the coins are
all "ringers", and the puzzle is not whether or not they are genuine, but what the
manufacturer was up to when he (or, these days, maybe she!) produced these coins.

Let’s start with a big bang. Fig. 1 shows a huge piece in a hard grey metal alloy.
It is somewhat battered, and does not appear to be of recent manufacture. It doesn’t
take much research to discover that it is a copy of an Indo-Greek gold 20 stater piece
of King Eucratides. The original was the largest known gold coin of the ancient
world, and was minted in about 160 BC.

Now, I couldn’t believe that any forger would be naive enough to gold plate this
piece and try to pass it off as the real thing. The only interpretation I could think of
that made reasonable sense was that it was intended to be gold plated alright, but not
with a view to fraud. Rather is was intended for display purposes, perhaps in a
museum somewhere. But there’s a snag with this theory.

So far as I know there is only one known genuine specimen of this huge coin, the one
in the Biblioth£que Nationale in Paris, and the piece in Fig. 1 is not a direct cast of
it - the portrait is slightly different for a start, but mainly there is a triangular symbol
in the lower left reverse field which doesn’t feature on the original. (The H-like
symbol is the mark of the Pushkalavati mint and is on the original, incidentally. The
circular "mound" in the lower right reverse field appears to be merely a side effect
of the casting process, rather than another additional symbol like the triangle.)

246

The question is, why make a display copy of this coin and put an extra symbol on it?
It doesn’t seem likely that it was added as a "tip-off' in the event that the copy ever
escaped into general circulation, since no one would be fooled by it without the extra
symbol anyway. (But then I do own a rather unconvincing yellow resin/plastic
"copy" of a Celtic gold stater - an uninscribed gold stater of the Coritani, similar to
Mack 50 - which has a small exergual R stamped on it for "reproduction", just in case
anyone might be fooled without it!) Still less, of course, would one put an extra
symbol on a copy of such a rare and valuable specimen if it was intended to deceive.
So, whichever way one looks at it. Fig. 1 is something of a puzzle.

Cast copies of coins in the wrong metal, and intended for plating for purposes of
fraud, are not uncommon. I have a cast copy in bronze of a posthumous silver
tetradrachm of Alexander the Great, for example, and a copy in brass of a Roman
Republican denarius (Acilia 8). I also have a copy in bronze of a gold aureus of the
Roman Emperor Postumus. This last carries an interesting story.

Fig. 2

It is shown in Fig. 2. The obverse shows the helmeted bust of the emperor facing
left, and bears the legend POSTVMVS AVG. The reverse shows a Victory inscribing
an oath on a shield and carries the legend QVINQVENNALES POSTVMI AVG. The
original aureus was issued in AD 264 to mark the fifth anniversary of the emperor’s
reign.

The bronze cast shown in Fig. 2 had apparently, by the time I bought it, shuttled back
and forth amongst various coin dealers for some time. In the course of its travels it
had also gathered a mythology, for it came with a neat hand-written ticket which
billed it as "a bronze cast medallion of 262 AD (sic), to commemorate games held
every five years." This ticket had not been made out by the dealer from whom I
bought the piece, for he had come to believe that it was a "ringer" whatever it was.
Rather the ticket had been made out by one of his predecessors in the shuttling
process. But clearly, somewhere along the line, a bit of wishful thinking had been
going on! Incidentally, the dealer who sold it to me was glad to see the back of it,
and its mythology, for what he himself had paid for it, and when I showed it to a
local dealer, fully 50 miles away from the place I bought it, he surprised me by
saying "Oh Lord, not that thing again!" It was obviously quite famous in its own
little way!

A rather different type of puzzling fake is shown in Fig. 3. It is fairly crudely cast
in a lightweight grey metal alloy. The obverse is apparently an archaic style helmeted
head of the goddess Athena, as found on the famous "Owl" coins of Athens in the 5th

247

Fig. 3

century BC. The reverse appears to show a figure seated at a table. The figure is in
relief, but in an incuse field, almost as if the reverse had been impressed with a seal.
This is not a copy of any known coin, and its purpose remains a mystery, unless it
be simply a rather inexpertly manufactured fantasy coin.

Fig. 4

Fig. 4 is another puzzling fake or fantasy, cast in lead, which came from the same
source at the same time as the previous piece. The obverse shows a female head or
possibly the head of Apollo - it is difficult to be sure since the face on this specimen
is both poorly cast and disrupted by surface corrosion, so much so that the face in my
drawing should be regarded "reconstructive guesswork"! The reverse appears to show
a slinger facing left, with a triskeles of human legs in the field. Many readers will
no doubt be thinking now as I did myself at first, namely that this type of reverse
features on the silver staters of Selge in Pisidia and Aspendos in Pamphylia (both now
in Southern Turkey) dating from the 4th century BC. But on all these coins the
slinger faces right not left, and in each case the obverse features two wrestlers and
not a human head. Once again, therefore, the origin and intention of this presumed
fantasy coin are somewhat puzzling. (To some extent this is likely to be true of many
fantasy coins, of course, for by definition they include an element of personal
invention which is not necessarily fathomable by anyone other than the inventor
himself!)

Fig. 5

Fig. 5 is a "fake" interesting for rather different reasons. It purports to be a silver
drachm of Panticapaeum in the Tauric Chersonesus (the modern Crimea) struck in the

248

4th century BC, though actually it turns out to be a copy in silver of a bronze coin!
I bought it several years ago - before I actively collected fakes - from a dealer who
didn’t deal much in ancient Greek coins, but who said he thought it was "iffy",
though he wasn’t sure. On this uncertain basis I bought it for £5. It is a beautifully
produced piece, though it has to be said that it does look too good to be true. But it
was only when I got the piece home and looked it over with a powerful lens that I
spotted the ultimate giveaway - a tiny hall-mark skillfully hidden between the body
of the griffon and the letter N! When I showed this to the dealer I’d bought it from,
he could hardly believe his eyes, and he offered me an immediate refund: he had
thought it was a fake alright, but he hadn’t realised it was quite such an obvious one!
In the end, I declined his offer of a refund and kept it as an amusing lesson learned.
Clearly this piece was never intended to deceive. I wonder if perhaps it was originally
part of a jewelery item, though there is no sign of any point of suspension anywhere.
Or maybe it is a novelty piece produced by a silversmith or jeweller. Either way, the
combination of Pan’s head and a griffon makes for a very striking piece indeed.

Fig. 6 is another "fake" interesting for yet different reasons. It doesn’t take much
research to establish that it is supposed to be a silver rupee of the Moghul Emperor
Akbar who was bom in AD 1542, and reigned from 1556 till his death in 1605. But
the silver looks wrong, and the sharpness of the detail gives the impression that the
piece has been machine pressed. Not only that, there is something distinctly fishy
about the date on it, AH 913, for it corresponds to AD 1507 - some 35 years before
Akbar was even bom! So, if this is a fake, it is a rather inept one.

Now, pieces made in imitation of Akbar’s coins, rather than as intended fakes, are
very common and are variously described as temple tokens or good luck pieces. But
a friend of mine, Robert Tye, has another interesting theory to account for at least
some of them. It is based on the fact that Akbar’s silver coinage was renowned for
its purity, to the point that anyone wanting some best quality silver would do well to
buy up old Akbar coins. Thus anyone wanting to cash in on this side of the bullion
trade could find it profitable to fake Akbar rupees in low quality silver which could
be sold, on the strength of their name, as top quality silver.

But what of that false date? It doesn’t seem likely that it is a deliberate error - an
indication that this is not a genuine coin - for this would be superfluously subtle for
something so obviously false. It seems more likely that it is just a careless slip,
51 r = 913 for Tir = 963, say. Unfortunately this doesn’t help us decide between
the rival theories regarding the piece, for a careless slip or a misreading of a worn
original could as easily happen in a bullion fraud as in the production of a temple
token/good luck piece.

Fig. 6

249

Fig. 7

Fig. 7 brings us back to the realms of the more traditional fake. It is a pseudo-Celtic
silver piece in Iceni/Coritani style, but its geometric reverse is not a direct copy of
anything in particular - it is just "made up", and apparently without any great effort
being expended on it, which makes its purpose rather puzzling. Just who is it
supposed to fool? Incidentally, it does appear to be of recent manufacture. One
contact believes he has seen another of these somewhere, and that they are a 1990’s
production, but at the time of writing this is unconfirmed.

In Part II of this series I mentioned an often puzzling class of Spanish fakes. To
recap, these are mainly copies of crown-sized silver coins which appear in some
quantity on street-market stalls in various parts of Spain. I have bought them in
recent years in the north-west of Spain, but a large part of my collection came from
a dealer here in England who bought a wide variety of them, in bulk, in Mallorca
about 15 years ago. Most are copies of Spanish coins, but as we shall see, there are
some curious exceptions! (I will make a suggestion regarding this piece in the next
article of this series.)

Fig. 8

The countermarked 5 peseta piece of Amadeo I featured in Part II was a sensible
fake, insofar as it was a copy of a relatively rare and collectable piece. One can thus
see why it was faked. The same is true of Fig. 8, an 8 reales piece of Philip V,
minted in Zaragoza in 1707. You would have to be rather well-off to afford a
genuine specimen of this coin in anything like a good grade! But what about the
following:

(i) A copy of a 5 peseta piece issued by the Provisional Spanish
Government of 1868-1870 (Fig. 9). But why fake an 1870, which is fairly
common, when an 1869 commands a much higher price?

250

>

>

Fig. 10

(ii) A copy of a 100 peseta piece of Franco, dated 1966 (Fig. 10) with, in
the stars either side of the date, 19-66. (On modem Spanish coins there are
two dates: the date of authorisation, the most visible date, and the date of
actual issue, in tiny incuse numerals in the stars on either side of the
authorisation date.) This, then, is a copy of one of the commonest types - one
with 19-69 in the stars would be more collectable as a variety. At first I
wondered if Fig. 10 might have been a contemporary forgery, but 1 am told
that these "Spanish Market" pieces are a more recent phenomenon than 1966,
which, if true, would rule out that idea. Another contact suggested that they
might have been produced as part of a fraudulent cash-in on the silver price
boom of 1980. His idea was that at that time old silver coins could be cashed
in at so-much times their face value. Thus slipping a few of these copies in
amongst the real things might turn a profit. Whether true or not, an idea like
this does make more sense than its being produced as a "collector’s item"!

As stated earlier, most of these "Spanish Market" fakes seem to be copies of Spanish

coins, like Figs. 8, 9 and 10. But other stranger types are also found:

(iii) An American 1929 Peace Dollar (Fig. 11). Well, yes, none were
actually produced in 1929, but then the Spanish word "Reproduccidn" has
been neatly inserted into the reverse design just below the eagle’s feet! The
only way this makes sense is if it was produced as a novelty piece for

251

Fig. 11

collectors, or, as one American correspondent suggests, as some kind of
promotional exercise - perhaps akin to the Robinsons soft drinks reproductions
of "Coins of Ancient Britain" in 1971? But whatever, there is no intent to
deceive here, and the piece is not a fake in the usual sense.

Fig. 12

(iv) A French 50 franc piece of 1976, but with "1876-1976" added inside
the wreath below the 50 francs (Fig. 12). I wonder if this is perhaps a fantasy
commemorative piece, mimicking the French coin rather than faking it, but I
don’t know for sure. I was given this piece in Spain, so have no idea of its
origins, but it does appear to be from the same stable as the foregoing pieces.

Figs. 8-12 are generally characterised by an over-shiny, too grey-ish "silver". They
don’t look or feel quite right, though some are more convincing than others. Mostly
they look plated, in fact. Fig. 12 has a surface roughness in the region of the last two
letters of the word REPUBLIQUE, and a chip on one edge which gives it away. Also
a slight ridge or "join"(?) is quite clearly visible running round the edges of some -
e.g. Fig. 1 1 and the Amadeo I piece mentioned in Part II. This is rather suggestive
of an outer shell machine moulded round a central core, though I do not know if this
is how they are made! A similiar "join" also features on Fig. 9, but this time at the
junction of the reverse face and edge, in which position it is difficult to see and easy
to miss. Presumably this is where it is supposed to be! Fig. 12 is similar in this

252

respect. No "join" is evident on Figs. 8 and 10, however. Finally, these coins are all
to some degree lighter than the real thing - Fig. 10 is fully 24% underweight, for
example, though others are only marginally on the light side.

As already indicated, it is the puzzling raison d’etre for the likes of Figs. 9-12 which
is intriguing. It would appear that a variety of coins are or have been produced for
a variety of reasons. Most, like Fig. 8, to dupe collectors - and they do sometimes
turn up in dealers’ trays in this country for sale (one hopes in error!) as the real thing.
Or, if we are charitable, and call them "replicas", they at least allow collectors to buy
a copy of a coin the genuine version of which they cannot afford. Others, like Fig.
1 1, are produced as novelties or promotion pieces, or, like Fig. 12, as commemorative
imitations(?). Others, like Figs. 9 & 10, though, remain a bit of a puzzle. I asked the
Spanish coin dealer who gave me Fig. 12 why anyone would bother to fake or
replicate the likes of Fig. 10. He just grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Who
knows?", he said, "They seem to copy whatever they can lay their hands on." Back
in England another contact claimed that in Spain one can have copies of anything
almost literally "made to order". No doubt there was considerable poetic licence in
his account ("Can you do me 50 copies of this, por favor?"; "Si, senor, can you come
back manana?") but something like this might explain some of the puzzling varieties
around, like Fig. 11, for example.

But lest I give anyone the wrong impression about Spain, let me emphasise that you
will not be off-loaded with such fakes by a bona fide coin dealer there any more than
you would here in England. These pieces do appear to be a street-market stall
phenomenon. The ones I have bought myself in Spain came from stalls which display
maybe 10 or 15 specimens amongst an array of cheap jewellery, watches, badges,
belts and handbags etc. You may well find a bona fide coin dealer in the same
market - one of my favourite dealers operates from just such a market, in fact - but
you will soon know which is which, believe me!

Since some of the better Spanish fakes do get mistaken for the real thing when they
turn up in this country, some sort of catalogue of them would seem in order (so far
as I know, this hasn’t been done). Every time I go to Spain, I try to do a little more
sleuthing, but what is on the market at any given time seems to change, and the
market now is probably quite different from what it was 10 or 15 years ago. Types
come and go. Accordingly I would be grateful if anyone reading this who has
knowledge of "Spanish Market" fakes would get in touch and let me know of their
personal experiences. They may not be the world’s best fakes, but in their own
peculiar way, they are interesting.

(Note: In addition to hearing from readers about Spanish fakes/replicas, I would also
be delighted to hear from anyone with any information/opinions regarding Figs. 1 to
7 - or anything else in this series for that matter! Please write to me at: 53
Bannerman Avenue, Prestwich, Manchester M25 1DR, England.)

253

Addendum.

Since this article was published in Coin News I have paid yet another visit to north-
west Spain, and acquired yet more Spanish market fakes. Amongst these are the
following types relevant to this article:

a) An 1869 version of Fig. 9 (so they do forge the rarer type as well as
the common one of 1870.)

b) An interesting companion piece to Fig. 11, being a copy of a Morgan
dollar, but dated 1927 (yes - none were struck by then!) and bearing
the word "Reproducci6n" just above "In God We Trust" on the
reverse!

c) A better specimen of Fig. 12. Having rescued this one myself from a
beads, bangles and belts stall, along with a fine selection of other
Spanish market fakes, I know now that this type is, as I surmised, from
the same stable as the other pieces described in this article.

ITALIAN COINAGE

Gregory Cole

(Reprinted from "Fourth Bulletin for 1973, Alfred Szego, Oakdale, N.Y., with Mr.
Szego’s permission.)

The fifth century marked the end of the Roman Empire in the West. During this time
barbaric coinage was mixed with the Byzantine issues which left a lasting influence
on the later issues of Venice in the North and Deneventum in the South.

The earliest money is that of the barbaric Lombards and Ostrogoths and the local
Byzantine issues in Sicily. This is followed by the deniers of Charlemagne and his
successors, succeeded by the gold issues of the Normans and Frederick n. Later as
the individual cities rose to power their need for a new coin for trade grew, so the
ducat of Venice and the florin of Florence came into being. During this time Sicily
and Sardinia were coming under Spanish control. After this time most of Italy came
under foreign control. The Austrians ruled Lombardy- Venetia and Milan, and the
Spanish ruled Sicily and Sardinia.

The coins of Italy are very colorful and interesting because of the many famous
people portrayed on them. Well known people like Napoleon Bonaparte, Francis II
(the man who ended the Holy Roman Empire in 1808), Victor Emanuelle III (the king
of Italy and a famous coin collector), Dante, Charles II and Frederick II.

Putting together a coin from every state, city, etc. of Italy is not as hard as German
coins, but still it is not easy, being almost as hard as trying to eat spaghetti with
chopsticks.

254

THE REASON FOR STRIKING OF CHEKHS IN SEVSK

V. V. Zaitsev

Translated by Thomas C. Day

The short duration of the issuance of coins in the town of Sevsk in 1686-1687 is one
of the most peculiar chapters in the history of the Russian monetary system of the
17th century. This uncommon coinage has repeatedly attracted the attention of
historians and numismatists alike. Even today, numerous questions regarding it have
not been settled definitively.

The Sevsk chekh acquires an aura of mystery, first of all, by its outward appearance
which is utterly uncommon for Russian coins of its times. Towards the end of the
17th century, the Russian monetary system had an extremely archaic aspect, having
been adopted generally during the monetary reforms of Yelena Glinskaya in 1535-
1537. Actually, coins of only two denominations, kopecks and dengas (1/2 kopecks),
were found in circulation. These coins were struck on flattened segments of silver
wire and were very small, which caused much inconvenience.1 The coins struck at
Sevsk were larger and had a correct round shape, while the obverse and reverse
appeared to copy almost wholly the Polish polturak, a type which was widely used
in the markets of the Ukraine in the 17th century and was known locally as the
"chekha".

I I IcM

On the obverse of the Sevsk coins appears the Russian coat-of-arms: the crowned
double-headed eagle. The surrounding legend gives the names and titles of the joint
tsars: Ivan and Peter Alexievitch. Lack of space caused the legend to be abbreviated
to the first letter of each word. The central part of the reverse carries the orb with
radial cross. The circular legend gives the place and date of issue.

One of the more important mysteries, unanswered until now, was the question of what
the purpose of this unusual issue may have been. The literature offers a variety of
answers. Thus, as early as 1781, M. D. Chulkov wrote in his history of Russian
commerce: "In the reign of Peter the Great, a coin was specially issued for commerce
with Poland and was called the chekh of Sevsk."2 From then on until the beginning
of the 20th century, the belief that the Sevsk chekhs were struck for commerce with
Poland remained prevalent There appeared, however, other versions to this theory.
For example, Baron S. de Chaudoir in 1837 suggested that "this coin was made by
Poles of Sevsk at the time of their invasion of Russia to support the False Dmitri or
Vladislav, the son of Sigismund IE...".3

255

Finally, from the time M. G. Demmeni’s authoritative article appeared in 1909, the
consensus in numismatic publications about these coins has been that the Sevsk chekh
was special "regional" money intended for circulation in the Ukraine.4 Elaborating
on this idea, I. G. Spasski noted that the Sevsk chekh, a Russian "provincial" coin,
was intended to circulate along with the various foreign coins still prevalent in the
Ukraine.

But the literature continued to offer varied suppositions, sometimes quite unexpected,
as to the genesis of these coins. For example, as late as 1970, I. M. Polozov,
discussing the findings of 14th- 15th century hoards of Prague groschen in the Bryansk
region of western Russia, believed that there existed a brisk trade between the sister
Slavic Russian and Czech nations and concluded that this commerce "was so intensive
that a little later, on the Russian tsar’s orders, a special coinage for commerce
between the two countries was launched in the town of Sevsk."5

However, the basic character of the Sevsk chekhs clearly showed in commerce with
Ruthenia, Bohemia and Poland. The coins were of such base-alloy that the
government had to send special "enforcers", who were authorized to impose the death
penalty, to try to force the population to take these coins. But even threats didn’t
help. Thus, an imperial edict dated 16th of September 1687 stated that "In according
to the recommendations from our representative Neplyuyev, Russian chekhs are
hereby withdrawn...for citizens of Putivl and merchants and traders decline to accept
these chekhs for bread or for other necessities; they accept silver money and Polish
chekhs instead, and many townspeople are without bread and are dying of hunger, and
disorder prevails in the region of Putivl."6

It goes without saying that the chekh coin, which the authorities had unsuccessfully
tried to force on their subjects under pain of death, would not have succeeded well
in trade with foreign countries.

In the second half of the 17th century, the markets of the Ukraine were flooded with
inferior base-alloy coins of small denominations. The great bulk of circulating money
was composed of Polish, Prussian and Swedish billon minor coinage as well as copper
Lithuanian and Polish solidi of Ian Casimir II. In these circumstances, the Russian
kopeck officially equaled the polturak and being of much better silver, in spite of its

archaic aspect knew hardly any competition in the Ukraine from other coins. This
circumstance had a negative side to it, however. According to Gresham’s Law,
presence of coins of the same nominal value but of different bullion content brings
about the spontaneous withdrawal from circulation of the coins of better intrinsic
quality.7 The effect of this law means that the few silver kopecks that appeared on
the markets of the Ukraine hardly ever returned to the public coffers. These higher

256

quality coins were withdrawn from circulation and melted into ingots and carried out
of the country or were used by silversmiths. Numerous financial documents of the
second half of the 17th century say clearly that the Ukrainian and Russian populations
preferred to pay all taxes and duties using the "copper Lithuanian money", which
often resulted in the scarcity in the treasury of silver money for the payment of
troops. For example, a formal reply of the Sevsk voevode Ivan Likharev and his
clerk Boris Ostolopov to tsar Feodor Alexievitch, written in 1676, stated that: "In
Sevsk and its district, merchants and all other traders buy and sell bread and
foodstuffs with Lithuanian money. Neither vodka nor wine nor honey is purchased
with silver coins or silver bars. Duties and customs are not paid with silver money
either. At present, the local major general, colonel and commanders are short seven
hundred fifty- six roubles and ten altyns in overdue pay. However, copper Lithuanian
money received at customs and through the liquor tax, the major general, the colonel
and the commanders decline to accept."8

This situation posed a serious threat to the State, for the Russian government needed
to keep large military forces in the Ukraine because of its unceasing struggle with
Poland. In addition, there were several thousand Cossacks who needed to be paid.
Thus the plan put forward in the 1670’s, more than a dozen years before the Sevsk
chekh was actually issued, of striking the Putivl chekh (later the Sevsk check) seems
none other than an attempt, though even partial, to replace the higher quality Russian
kopeck with a Russian equivalent of the lower quality Western European coin for
meeting the pay of the Russian military in the region. The opinion of M. G.
Demmeni about the initial project of the Putivl chekh as a regional coin, foretells the
real chekh of Sevsk of 1686. The Sevsk coin came into existence, evidently, as an
indirect result of the petitions of the Ukrainian hetman Ivan Samoilovitch to the
Russian tsar.

The hetman’s yearning to get his own territorial money is easy to understand: he
hoped to secure a regular regional coinage using the circulating coinage as a source
of raw material by withdrawing from circulation all Polish coins. The hetman also
understood that the new coins should be intrinsically competitive: thus he repeatedly
reminds in his messages that these coins should not be inferior to Polish coins. As
M. G. Demmeni points out from the correspondence of the hetman Samoilovitch with
the Russian government, the hetman’s solicitation gave Moscow no special problem.
The Russian government made it clear from the very beginning that it expects to coin
the new money under full quality control. It is clear that Moscow was interested in
the economic advantage of exchanging higher quality coins with the lower quality
ones in payment of salaries. Thus, after long discussion and delays, when it was
finally decided to strike the new cheklis in Putivl in 1677, it was proposed that, to
start with, these coins would be struck up to a modest limit of ± 100 poods (4000
Russian pounds). This idea of so limiting the coinage made hetman Samoilovitch
very cool to the idea of striking chekhs at all, and thus the coinage at Putivl came to
naught.

This idea was again brought forward in 1686. The initiative this time, to all
appearances, came directly from the Russian government, the reason being the
preparations for Russia’s projected Crimean campaign. Large expenditures were to

257

be expected, therefore a means of building up cash reserves became urgent. The
place of minting of the chekhs was logically Sevsk - the assembly point of troops
leaving for the South. As the issue resulted from special circumstances, Moscow
from the beginning considered it as temporary. Indirectly supporting this is the fact
that all known chekhs of Sevsk are dated 1686. The main purpose for the minting
of the chekhs was to cover military expenses in the Ukraine, deliberately using
inferior money, for the government was not in the least concerned with the coin’s
competitiveness. Having accomplished its mission in the Ukraine, the government
withdrew the chekh of Sevsk as of September, 1687.

In conclusion, it should be noted that Russian monetary measures of the 17th century
give many examples of coins being called into being through extraordinary
circumstances. It is enough to remember the gold coins of Vassili Shuiskii struck to
pay Swedish mercenaries, or the 1655 yefimok, counterstamped on European talers,
which arose partly out of the war in the Ukraine. If one were to look at the Sevsk
chekh in relation to these issues, it is possible that the coin would no longer seem
such a strange and enigmatic piece.

Notes and References

1. I. G. Spasski. The Russian Monetary System. Leningrad, 1962.

2. A historical description of Russian commerce at all ports and borders from ancient
times until the present day and all laws from Peter the Great until Catherine the Great,
a work of Mihail D. Chulkov. St Petersburg, 1781. Vol. 1, Book 1.

3. Commentary on Russian and foreign money which circulated in Russia since
ancient times: work of Baron Stanislav de Chaudoir. St. Petersburg, 1837.

4. M. G. Demmeni. "The matter of the coining of the Sevsk chekh." Records of the
imperial Russian archeological society. St. Petersburg, 1909. Vol. 1.

5. I. M. Polozov. "Coins - memorials to a material culture." In the book: Memorials
to the history and culture of the Bryansk region. Bryansk, 1970.

6. Code of laws of the Russian empire since 1649. Volume 2, 1676-1688, St.
Petersburg, 1830.

7. A. C. Beliakov. "Numismatics." In the book: Introduction to special historical
disciplines. Moscow, 1990.

8. A. C. Melnikova. The history of monetary circulation in the Ukraine in the 17th
century. Soviet archives. 1970, No. 6.

********************************************************************

"FADGE"

A slang term for the Farthing was once "Fadge".

258

(Submitted by R. R. Kutcher)

THE FACE BEHIND THE FACE BEHIND THE IRON MASK

Peter S. Horvitz, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, NI # 2215

Of all the strange chapters in the strange history of the Man in the Iron Mask, one of
the most fantastic was when one of France’s most talented generals, a future marshal
de France, was asked to pose as the mysterious prisoner.

The Man in the Iron Mask, whom recent research seems to prove was a valet named
Eustache Danger, was first imprisoned in 1669. For the next thirty-four years he
would be the most carefully guarded prisoner in history, being moved from prison to
prison, special cells often being constructed for his confinement In one case, a
careless servant who merely talked to him found himself condemned, without trial,
to imprisonment for the rest of his life. What terrible secret lay behind the Masque
de fer? This has been the subject of speculation by Voltaire, Dumas, Pagnol, and
many others for almost 250 years. It seems unlikely, after all this time, that whatever
secret seemed so dangerous to Louis XIV and the Marquis de Louvois, his minister
of war, shall ever be revealed. Though one theory does not seem at all likely, that
he was the king’s twin brother.

The Man in the Iron Mask’s warden was Benigne de Saint-Mars and it was he who
remained in charge of the prisoner from his first arrest in 1669 until his death in the
Bastille in 1703. Saint-Mars was also the director of the strange charade in the
prison-fortress of Pignerol, when the transfer of the Iron Mask and his fellow prisoner
La Riviere, the hapless servant who had carelessly talked with him, took place in
1681. Louvois, who always took most especial interest in the Iron Mask, insisted that
the transfer, to the new prison-fortress of Exiles, should be unknown even to the other
prisoners in Pignerol. Plans were made that stand-ins must be in place in the
prisoner’s cell, when the actual transfer took place. Ordinary civilians, obviously,
could not be trusted for such a secret task. So a high military officer, then in charge
of that region, Gen. Nicolas Catinat, who was then in the midst of preparing a
military incursion into Italy, was drafted to spend almost the whole month of
September, 1681 in a prisoner’s cell, accompanied by one of his captains.

When the transfer had been successfully completed, Gen. Catinat was allowed to go
back to his army and his military activities.

It was in 1687, during a later transfer from Exiles to Sainte-Marguerite, an island
prison off the coast of Cannes, that the unfortunate prisoner was forced to wear,
probably for the only time in his life, the iron mask, whichever since has identified
him. In his earlier confinements he had gone unmasked. Later, in the Bastille, his
last prison, he was sometimes forced to wear a black, velvet mask.

The military career of Nicholas Catinat was one of France’s most distinguished during
the later part of the seventeenth century. Catinat is given credit for the French
conquests of Savoy in 1690 and Nice in 1691. His victories at Staffarda (1690) and
Marsaglia (1693) were considered among the greatest of the time. In 1693, his
successes were rewarded by his being raised to the rank of mar6chal de France,

259

France’s highest honor. His contributions to the War of Spanish Succession were also
distinguished and he served as second in command under Marshal Villeroy during
the campaign of Chiari (1701). His part in the transfer of the Man in the Iron Mask
was a well kept secret until many years after his death.

We do not know what the face of Danger, the Man in the Iron Mask, looked like, but
we do have portraits of the man who took his place in his cell in the prison of
Pignerol in September of 1681. The bronze, forty millimeter medal illustrated above
is part of the series Metallic Gallery of Great Frenchmen. This piece is dated 1823.
The obverse shows a bust of Nicholas Catinat facing right. His hair (or wig) falls in
long ringlets and he is wearing a breastplate. The signature of the medallist Domard
appears under the bust. The legend is the name of the subject. The reverse has an
inscription in French. The upper part of the inscription, in large letters, indicate that
Catinat was born in Paris in 1637 and that he died in 1712. Under this, in much
smaller letters is the name of this series of medals and under this is the date of issue.

HENRY CHRISTOPHE’S REIGN IN HAITI

On October 17, 1806, Jacques I, the self proclaimed Emperor of Haiti died. His
second in command, Henry Christophe fled to the northern part of the island. In
1811, Henry proclaimed himself King and set off a civil war between himself and the
mulatto leaders in the south, who had set up a republic with Alexander Petion as
president. Henry built the famous Citadelle Laferriere, a fortress just south of Cap-
Haitien. In 1818, President Petion died and Jean Pierre Boyer took control of the
south. In 1820 King Henry suffered a stroke, and rather than let Boyer take him as
an invalid, he shot himself in the head with a silver bullet. Boyer took control of the
north then, and in 1 822, he was able to subdue the east end of the island too.

While King, Henry had struck a few silver dollar coins dated 1820. On their obverse
is the bust of Henry facing right in the style of a Roman Emperor with a laureated
head and draped and cuirassed shoulder. The inscription is, "HENRICUS DEI
GRATIA HAITI REX 1820." The reverse has his crowned Coat of Arms surrounded
by, "DEUS CAUSA.ATQUE GLADIUS MEUS L"AN17."

260

(Submitted by R. R. Kutcher)

Book News & Reviews

The Coins of Independent Peru: Volume III, Bolivian Moneda Feble. By Horace
Flatt. Haja Enterprises, 1994. Softcover, 5 1/2 by 8 1/2", 140+ pages,
illustrations, extensive notes, annotated bibliography. Available from Dale
Seppa, 103 Sixth Avenue North, Virginia, MN 55792. Price is $12.50 plus $2.00
shipping & handling in the United States. Foreign add $5.00 to cover the cost of
registry and additional post.

By this, the third volume of what is the definitive series on the historical background
of the coins of independent Peru, author Flatt has refined his method. His is a unique
approach: each work turns inward on the previous one, explaining its predecessor
through the use of historical documentation. If Volume II took us to the end of
intrinsically valued "hard money" around the time of World War II, this third volume
doubles back to the first half of the nineteenth century. Volume III could almost have
been titled "Defying Gresham's Law."

After pointing out the debasement of coinage is nothing new, by use of a quote from
Aristophanes' play The Frogs , written four centuries before the birth of Christ, Flatt
goes on to give us Thomas Gresham's own formulation, that whenever "a government
assigns the same nominal value to two or more forms of circulatory medium whose
intrinsic values differ, payments will always, as far as possible, be made in that medium
which the cost of production is least, the more valuable medium tending to disappear
from circulation." What is new about the period described in this volume, in fact
unique, is the fact that the moneda feble , or debased Bolivian coins dated 1830, drove
out of circulation the peso fuerte of full intrinsic value, not only within Bolivia itself,
but in the neighboring country of Peru as well.

Volume II of The Coins of Independent Peru is basically the story of how and why
this happened There were economic and military causes and consequences in both
countries during the first thirty-five years of their independence from Spain. Although
the story has been told before, Flatt's effort represents the first time this has been done
in English, with complete documentation, and in a manner which is at once
informative, exhaustive, and entertaining. For readers who do not possess an
academic background, the author explains exactly what his system of citations entails,
and why it is important to the numismatist-historian to fully document all his claims.
Whereas Volume II included an extensive glossary of basic Spanish language
terminology involved in the minting process of the epoch, with Volume III, there
begins a process of exact citations of the original documents, some of which are
rendered in English translations in the appendices. A five page bibliography of all
pertinent references concludes the work.

Flatt's genius lies in being exact without ever becoming tedious. After reading this
third volume of The Coins of Independent Peru , this reviewer will never view his
worn examples of Bolivar-portrait Potosi minors of 1830, or his Sunface coins of
South Peru, with their enchanting Inca palace and Spanish galleon reverses, with quite

261

the same eyes again. At the same time, Flatt has given us all a textbook example of
just how to conduct numismatic research.

Reviewed by David Fiero.

*****

Promises to Pay— The First Three Hundred Years of Bank of England Notes. By
Derrick Byatt. Spink & Son Ltd., 1994. Hardcover, 8 1/2 by 11", 246 pages,
with approximately 94 color and 140 black and white illustrations. Available
from Spink & Son Ltd., Book Department, 5-7 King Street, St. Jame's, London
SW1Y 6QS, England. Price is 40 pounds postpaid (seamail).

The author of Promises to Pay— The First Three Hundred Years of Bank of England
Notes , a retired senior official of the Bank of England, was commissioned to write a
history of the banknotes issued by the Bank of England, which was founded in 1694.
The author was given unique access to a wealth of hitherto unavailable material in the
Bank's archives related to design, production, numbering, forged and lost or damaged
notes. The Bank's priceless museum collections have been exhaustively studied and
form the basis for most of the illustrations— many of which have not before been
published.

Some of the subjects covered with great depth include the activities of the Nazis in
forging the Bank's notes during the Second World War; the system of numbering the
old black and white notes; Branch note issues; and the secret marks incorporated into
the design of the banknotes.

Reviewed by Jerry Remick.

* * 3*C 3*C J*C

Banknotes and Banking in the Isle of Man. By Ernest Quarmby. Spink & Son
Ltd., 1994. 248 pages, illustrations, with rarity guide. Available from Spink &
Son Ltd., 5-7 King Street, St. Jame's, London SW1Y 6QS England. Price is
19.95 pounds plus 3 pounds for sea mail postage and packing.

Over 440 varieties of Manx paper currency, card money, banknotes, and internment
camp vouchers encompassing two hundred years and more than 170 illustrations are
included in this new edition of Banknotes and Banking in the Isle of Man. Since
publication of the first edition in 1972, original research has yielded considerable new
information on Manx paper currency, with particular reference to details of numbers
of notes outstanding and records of extant notes, presenting a new light on the rarity
of the paper currency of the Island. New data relating to proof and pattern notes is
also included, giving insight into the background and development of note design.

The growth of banking in the Isle of Man is dealt with in detail from the early days of
private individuals, some of whom ran their banking businesses as a subsidiary, issuing
card currencies and banknotes. The author traces the development of banking through

262

government regulation and control, with some financial problems, to consolidation of
the banks and finally to the present government management of banknote issues.

Reviewed by Jerry Remick.

************************ ********************************* ************

FROM THE MAILBOX

Use of NI Library encourages collecting of Scottish coins

Recently, I strayed into the realm of Scottish coinage when a Scottish piece, at what
seemd an attractive price, was advertised in World Coin News.

I had very little information on Scottish coins. One reference suggested further
reading in Ian H. Stewart’s THE SCOTTISH COINAGE.

As you may have guessed, I borrowed the Stewart book from the NI Libary. The
Librarian also sent an auction catalog on the same subject

The auction Catalog ("The Dundee Collection of Scottish Coins", a joint sale held by
Spink & Sons and Bowers and Ruddy in 1976) is simply beautiful. One look at those
plates and I knew I was "hooked".

With the Library’s help. I’ve decided:

a) to collect certain Scottish coins, and

b) to find a copy of Stewart.

These references came in today, along with three more on another subject. The total
cost? Just the postage. At Library Rates, I’m paying only $1.75 each way.

Bill Snyder
Cookeville, Tennessee

One rouble coins used by Russian cobblers

Cobblers in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk have begun using the virtually worthless
one-rouble copper coin to repair stiletto heels. They offer a discount if paid in coins.

Kenneth Houston

263

MEMBER NOTICE PAGE

Howard A. Daniel III, P. O. Box 626, Dunn Loring, VA 22027-0626: Books,
pamphlets and articles wanted which describe the French, Chinese and Vietnamese
bills of exchange, certificates of deposit and other financial and banking paper used
in the area which is now Viet Nam. Please call or write first with the title, author’s
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Dr. Wolfgang Schuster. Heiligenstadter Strasse 193/1/2. A-1190 Vienna. Austria:

I would like to establish a correspondence concerning Japanese coins with any
Japanese Nl-member or anyone specializing in Japanese numismatics.

James O. Sweeny, P. O. Box 1177, Highlands, NC 28741: I have a set of the now
long defunct World Coins magazine (except for March 1970) from April 1968 through
March 1976. Will accept any reasonable offer for the set. I also have many years
of back issues of World Coin News. Write if interested.

John L. Pieratt, 2635 S. Hydraulic, #32C, Wichita, KS 67216: Need all info,
copies of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, China type Hell Bank notes.

Dr. Wolfgang Schuster. Heiligenstadter Strasse 193/1/2, A-1190 Vienna. Austria:

I am trying to locate a Marcus Whitler who worked for oil companies on the Arabian
Peninsula and later in Alaska. I think he was responsible for strikes of a Hejaz token
listed in UWC. If anyone knows of his whereabouts, I would appreciate any
information.

John L. Pieratt 2635 S. Hydraulic. #32C, Wichita. KS 67216: Need all info on
Vietnam club token errors, die cracks, double hub, overstrikes, fakes, ones with edge
groove.

Jav Kristofferson, 4651 Geronimo St., Chandler. AZ 85226-5308: Research help
needed. Central American Republic and related 1822-1854 or so. I can use books,
coins, auction catalogs, inventories, any help at all. In spite of working on this project
for several years very few areas are close to completion. I can especially use 1/2, 1
and 2 Reales and gold 1/2, 1 and most 2 Escudos. Will pay catalog to double catalog
for most coins.

Ralph A. Cannito. Box 304. Washington, NJ 07882: WANTED - Islamic/ Arabic:
all hammered silver coinage from 622 AD to 1900 AD. I am especially interested in
rupees, multiple and Nazarana rupees of Afghanistan, Indian Princely States and the
Mughal, Ottoman & Persian Empires. Buying one coin or a collection. Dealer and
collector offers are welcome. ANA R068117.

NEW RULES FOR USE OF THE MEMBER NOTICE PAGE: Please see page
172 of the August, 1994 issue for new rules for using this page.

264